The Human Experiment

It's called progress. And, here is yet another example of the case for seeking a more natural way of living because too many modern miracles are too often shown to be killers. " Innocent until proven guilty" is a good thing in our court systems. It's not a good thing in introducing technology into mainstream use before we know it is truly safe, because we are finding too many times that we were deceived -- often, by ourselves, to believe that something is safe. We are deceived by our own unmet needs that are about vanity, position, wealth, acceptance, and advancement in a material, physically focused society.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who use tanning beds do not protect themselves from skin damage from subsequent sun exposure, an international research group has concluded. In fact, use of sunbeds before age 35 substantially increases the risk of developing melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, the investigators found.

"Young adults should be discouraged from using indoor tanning equipment and restricted access to sunbeds by minors should be strongly considered," the Working Group on artificial UV light and skin cancer of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concludes in the March 1 issue of the International Journal of Cancer.

The group reviewed all studies done up until March 2006 to investigate the relationship between sunbed use and skin.
cancer.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/sc_nm/early_sunbed
_use_boosts_melanoma_risk_dc

What to do when you read something like this and you went to tanning booths for years?? Same as what to do when we hear Vioxx killed a lot of people and Paxil makes people more depressed and suicidal. Same as what to do when we learned that xrays and DES were dangerous after all. Same as what to do when Ether was shown to be dangerous for the mother and baby. Same as what we'll do when they finally conclude that cell phones are dangerous, that sonograms are dangerous, that induction is dangerous, that epidural is dangerous, that sucking about out with an extraction machine is dangerous, and that cesarean is dangerous (even when also lifesaving). What do we do when we learn this news -- the truth of something we are doing or have done? We panic, we deny it, we get mad, then we deny it, we panic and in the end, we have to live with our choices and the consequences.

We LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES ... and go into some level of fear and denial, the result of which is a physiological, hormonal reaction that makes us sicker. Our fear makes our mind worry about the future and draw it to us. And, oddly, strangely, inexplicably we have to rely on those who said it was safe and caused it, for our cancer treatment, or drug therapy, or surgical treatment --- Scientists, doctors, Big Pharm, and Big Business. Meanwhile, the "natural" non-technological, non-chemical way of life is now called "alternative" (that is just so odd to me!)and those who pursue it are socially weird. Meanwhile, technology reigns so that natural birth is denigrated and made nearly impossible to achieve in the hospitals -- while the procedures known to be unsafe, even when lifesaving, but are now done routinely on healthy women and babies continue. Things that make me go, Hmmmmmm somedays and %@$^#*@@@%$ $&$*$*@ too many days.

The article ends with, "The strength of the existing evidence suggests that policy makers should strongly consider enacting measures such as restricting minors and discouraging young adults from using indoor tanning equipment, in order to protect the general population from additional risk for melanoma and squamous cell skin cancer," the IARC group concludes.

Yeah, well, riiiight, that has really worked with tobacco, pot, alcohol, and heroin. And policy makers certainly have not made any gains for protecting babies and women in the birth machine. Our young girls (and boys) are being programmed by the messages of society, via the multiple forms of media. Our policy makers need to support measures that support early healthy conception, gestation, labor and birth, that protect birthing women and babies, and allocates financial resources towards these goals.

SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, March 1, 2007.

And, yes, I am a hypocrite. I like my comforts and my toys. As I sit here at the "wireless" computer while what I imagine to be unimaginable Internet, electricity, and cell phone tower beams criss-crossing through me, and all that that could mean to my energetic being self, I am thinkin' ..... God, PLEASE let the internet be good for us!"